i've recently finished a book that i thoroughly enjoyed. it really is what is says it is. there were so many funny thoughts, quips, and musings that really resonated with me and i laughed out loud throughout the book....often in public...which garnered many strange looks. 
one of my favorite things she wrote was this:
13 really is my lucky number...and now it's yours peri!!!
Here are your random numbers:
13
Timestamp: 2010-03-15 04:55:33 UTC
if anyone wants one of the lucky necklaces just drop me an email at thisandthatjewelry {at} gmail {dot} com. they are a lucky $13 a piece!
this is what my kids are doing right now...love it!
my new solution for shirts with stains...t-shirt transfers!
playing with the drums max got for lego rock band. yes, i get into it...it's fun.
max and his silly friends on the field trip bus on his birthday.
aren't these boys adorable?
nora and my darling niece audrey reading happily in my window sill. i love it.
the darling note we found from jack to ella. these two get along famously. really. it makes my heart happy.
the semi-trailer truck that smashed into paul on a drive up north. thanks to the snow bank for slowing the truck down, or paul may not be with us today.
paul's car.
sweet nora jayne at 2:00am after a trip to the emergency room. after falling out of bed a few times it finally caught up to her. possible hairline fracture, but she's still smiling!anyone want one of these?
i think they are adorable and fun for st. patrick's day. leave a comment on this post and i'll choose a winner sunday night. i just love giving things away!!
Here are your random numbers:
20
33
1
10
37
Timestamp: 2010-03-06 05:23:11 UTC
this means my winners are:
mother beck
julie (of parker colorado)
michelle
crockett family
adrianne
yay!! i am so excited. i need all of you winners to email me your mailing address. thanks for making my birthday special!
last year for my birthday i did a giveaway. it was so much fun. it actually made my birthday something i really looked forward to because one of my all time favorite things to do is make something and give it away.
so...
let's do it again!!
yes...today is my birthday. now that that's out of the way let's get down to what's really important.
the giveaway:
if you want a chance to win, leave a comment. easy.
on friday night i will close the comments...when i go to bed...no specific time.
saturday i will use random.org or some other number choosing site to choose 5 winners.
5 WINNERS PEOPLE!! did you see that? yes...5.
the fun part is that i will get to give you anything i want! sorry, it's my birthday...i get to choose.
it will probably be something like these. but, you never know...my itch for sewing more again is needing to be scratched.
so, let me know if your interested, and have a great day.
max. what more can i say? this kid lives life to the max...and i love him so so much.
his new thing is that he wants to either be called maxwell, or maximus. it changes daily.
this kid needs/loves his sleep. he often asks to go to bed if it's well after 8:30pm. in the above picture he had enough of the family christmas celebration. it was just too late. i mean he got his comfy pillow pet and his $5. what more do you need?
while we were in utah for our quick post christmas visit, we couldn't get this kid out of the snow. one day we went sledding for a few hours, and when we got home he spent the next 4-5 hours in my sisters backyard. 
max has two best buddies...his dad and his brother jack. i can't explain how happy this makes me.
when we returned from our trip to hawaii we brought the boys t-shirts and shark tooth necklaces. they were so excited that they set out their outfits for school the next day. jack's clothes are on the right and max's are on the left. do you see something missing from the get up max put out? i've tried and tried, but that kid just doesn't like that extra undergarment. someday...
this picture cracks me up because it says so much about max, nora, and their relationship. nora is constantly posing for pictures. max is constantly being silly, and again...has a messy face. also, you may notice the blur that is nora's hand. she was in the process of hitting max on the head with a perfect smile on her face. oh the joy. 
the sunday stew is my favorite way to catch up on a lot of 'this and that' that has gotten left out of the blog. hence the name 'stew'. in no particular order, here is a quick rundown of some recent significant (and some not so significant) events.
we were lucky enough to attend the fiesta bowl with our good friends the taylor's from boise, id. it was such a blast. this is a picture we got with one of their good friends who dressed up with his son as 'bronco libre'. they got a lot of attention. i'm so mad we didn't get a picture with brandon and sally, but they were nice enough to outfit us properly for the game. thanks again guys. we sure miss you. i was even lucky enough to finally meet one of my good online friends kristi! she is even better in person and now i can't wait to see her again.
at the end of january jack and i were able to take a quick trip up to salt lake to attend the baptisms of his cousins henry and sam. these three red heads were all born within three months of each other and are good buddies. i still think it's so great that all three are boys and all three have red hair even though there is no red hair in my family! my brother, sister, and i just happened to marry into that glorious red hair gene. aren't they handsome? they are such good boys too. 
horray! max finally lost his first tooth. he was so excited. it is really important to be able to put your name on the tooth chart in kindergarten. he was worried this may never happen. what a cutie.
this is why i love to live in arizona. this kind of scene just warms my heart, and i wish i saw it more often. we need more kids in our neighborhood. but, because of the glorious weather we have for most of the year, the kids can get together and play outside often. this was taken on president's day and it just made me happy.
i was playing with the camera controls and accidentally took this picture of myself. i was going to delete it, but then i realized it also illustrated why i love arizona winters. this is my daily attire: jeans, flip-flops, short sleeve shirt, and cardigan on stand-by for if i get a little chilly. lovely.
i also snapped this picture of me standing next to our yard flag on president's day. i love that the scouts come around and put these flags in our yards on these holidays. seeing the american flag swaying in the wind is a beautiful sight.
jack took this picture of himself one day. as you can see, his hair was getting pretty long. it was cute most of the time, but i was starting to wish he would cut it. i told him he could grow it out until his baptism in may. well one day he came home and said he wanted to cut it.
this is jack now. isn't he so darn handsome? i love how i can see that great face. the only bummer is that it looks so dark now and it's hard to see the red as much. he has my dream color of hair.
this is a note ella wrote to her piano teacher. i laughed and cried. she is so cute. this girl is as genuine as they come. what you see is what you get with her. she obviously hates piano lessons, but at least she's willing to work on it.
ella and i were able to go on a little mother daughter date to see mary poppins. it was great. i'm so glad she enjoys going to these productions with me. she is really fun to have around.
we had to laugh because we were running late and both changing to get ready to go. we both came down the stairs and were wearing polk a dots! i almost changed because i thought it might look cheesy, but ella thought it was cute so we stuck with it.
i snapped a quick picture of our heart attacked kitchen. we went a little crazy this year and added doilies to the decor. when i saw them at the store i couldn't resist. it just reminded me of my childhood so much. this is our third year in a row doing it, and it has become one of our favorite traditions. thanks shawni!
i had to get a picture of daddy, his girls and the beautiful flowers he got them for valentines. lucky girls...and guy! 
no, i'm not giving you the thumbs up in this picture. okay, i guess i could be. but really i'm showing off the nice big blister i gave myself while polishing some pieces of jewelry. can't see it?
how about now? it doesn't look so bad in this picture, but it really hurt! i've been having a lot of fun making things for people. i love all the ideas they give me and it truly is a creative outlet for me. and even though i get an injury here and there, i really love working with my hands. 
speaking of working with your hands...
here is another one of jack's spelling tests. you may remember this post well over a year ago where i was bragging about jack's incredible handwriting. well, this one blew me away too. keep in mind this was a spelling test, so they had to go fast.
he definitely didn't get this from me. my only 'c' growing up was in third grade for handwriting. click on the picture if you want to enlarge it. okay, i know i'm probably the only one who cares, but i do. he rocks. oh, and they just started to learn cursive. yeah...he's good at that one too. he's in the 2nd grade.
alright...post and bragging finished. happy sunday.
paul posted on the blog HERE about our dear little max's accident over memorial day weekend last year. he did a great job. i wanted to also take the opportunity to document my thoughts and feelings about this scary, but miraculous event. humor me please...
it all started as a last minute trip (hence bringing the dog) up to st. george, utah over memorial day weekend. speaking of the dog...that ended up being the biggest pain!!! thanks heather for tolerating maggie at your house as an unexpected and uninvited visitor!
we arrived late at night and first thing in the morning we went on a little hike with the kids.
at the top max wanted to take pictures and kept insisting that paul and i kiss. i love that our kids like to see us be affectionate.
here is the motley crew at the top. max was obviously all geared up and having a great time.
the kids and their daddy. max was still being hyper. it's a wonder his accident didn't happen on the top of a rock filled bluff.
the trek down.
after the hike and a fun time swimming we headed out for lunch which included foot long corn dogs for the kids...bleh!! max thought it was great and proceeded to down the entire thing...and half of nora's. bleh again!
after that, the boys headed out to golf and the girls headed home for naps, books and down time.
can you tell how much max likes his time on the course with dad and jack? his face is always that messy by the way. no joke.
here he is displaying the beloved lava rock that enamored him along the way. and this is where it all went wrong. the boys found some 'roly-poly' bugs (we always called them potato bugs). they were at this point more interested in the bugs and lava rocks than anything else. max was so fixated on the bugs/rocks that he fell out of the golf cart...at full speed.
initially it seemed like no big deal. he cried and said it hurt, but there was no bump, scrape, blood, and the tears ended quickly. when they came back from golf he even ran in to show me his lava rock before he told me about the fall. 
so...we decided to continue with our fun day and head to the movies. while we were there with treats, drinks and popcorn, max fell asleep. i thought it was weird because it was a 6:00 movie, but we had been going going going all day. we woke him up to leave the theater and he wobbled to the car. immediately upon getting in the car he fell asleep again. weird.
when we got back to the condo max walked in the front door and told me his head hurt. i put my hand on his head to lean over and give him a kiss....and felt something very scary. his head squished...like a sponge. i knew it wasn't good. i called paul over and had him check it out. neither of us are dramatic people...obviously. when paul felt his head he looked at me and said we better take him in to the ER. for paul this was a big deal. i knew that meant it couldn't be good. like i said, we are usually the 'it'll be fine' kind of people. i told paul to take him in and i stayed home and got the other kids to bed.
at 10:30pm i got a call from paul telling me that a ct scan showed that max had a sub-dural hematoma. now i'm no medical expert, but i do consider myself fairly educated on general terms. i knew that was bad. especially when i looked it up on the computer and saw this:
"Acute subdural hematomas are associated with a death rate between 30 and 90%, with a figure of 60% typically cited. Emergency surgery is the usual treatment, though studies have shown that alert patients with small subdural hematomas can do as well without surgery if monitored closely for signs of worsening."
paul was calm as usual, but shaken. he told me about how they weren't going to scan him, but he asked them to anyway. this was a little surprising because paul is not pushy. i knew he had been prompted. he told me they were going to have to life-flight max to either phoenix or salt lake. we opted for salt lake not only because it would be a shorter transport for max, but also because we had most of both sides of the family there. we knew that if this was a long term recovery we would need their support. it didn't hurt that paul's dad is a pediatrician with privileges at primary children's hospital either.
i tried to get some sleep while getting updates from paul on the progress. they had to take an ambulance to the air field and then load max and paul onto the plane. max had to be immobilized on a board but was in good spirits. i feel so blessed that they let paul travel with max. once they arrived in salt lake they then had to take an ambulance to primary children's hospital.
upon arrival at the hospital the attending surgeon was shocked to see max awake and alert. he commented that with the ct images he had seen, he expected to see a comatose patient. he continued to say that he was sure from those pictures that they were going to have to open up his skull to drain the blood and decrease swelling. now that he saw max and examined him he decided to admit him to the intensive care unit and monitor him closely for changes. we were so grateful for this news.
being in the ICU meant that he had at least one nurse in the room sitting at the foot of his bed at all times. as paul mentioned in his post, they were smitten with max. it's hard not to be with his fun personality, twinkling eyes, and contagious smile.
early the next morning i headed out with the other three kids on our drive up to salt lake. funny story...
because paul had taken max to the hospital and then left in an ambulance our car was still in the ER parking lot. thankfully i texted my friend shally (very late at night mind you) and asked if she could come in the morning and drive us to our car. she was so cute and even brought us doughnuts for the drive. it's so great to have friends that will jump at the chance to help in a pinch!
it wasn't easy to drive that whole way not really knowing what was going on with max. i was really surprised though at how calm i was and how smooth the drive went. i only stopped once in fillmore and then kept going. i was trying to explain to the kids what happened without scaring them.
when we finally arrived at the hospital max looked so great! he had just been transferred from ICU to the trauma ward. i was so relieved to see my same sweet boy smiling back at me. the next day or two were long at the hospital, but there was only ever good news. i felt relieved and also a little unworthy. there were so many kids in that wing of the hospital that were so much worse off than max. i would see them and their parents and wonder why we were so lucky. max was discharged and we were advised to stay in the area for the week. we were blessed to not have anything else going on at home and took advantage of our unexpected visit with family. 
paul even let jack go up on the roof with cousin andrew and uncle colin?!!! what in the world?! i guess life goes on right?!
here is a picture of max the day before we headed back to arizona. (i told you his face is always messy) you can see on the right side of the screen how his head was still highly misshapen. he even walked around with his head tilted to the side like it was heavier somehow. we knew we were in for it when the doctors told us that he couldn't run or jump for 4-6 weeks, and couldn't do any rough activities and/or ride his bike for up to 8 weeks. funny thing is they said he could swim after 2 weeks as long as he didn't jump in and didn't get too worn out. so, it all worked out perfectly because in arizona it's to hot to do anything but swim in the summer.
we had several follow up appointments in both arizona and utah. there was a large skull fracture that they monitored, but all along the way doctors and technicians commented on how amazing max was doing considering his injury. at his final follow up at primary children's hospital the neurosurgeon told me that he has never seen a child with this significant of an injury not have some kind of loss of function. as he was saying this, max was coloring in the corner. the doctor proceeded to look at his paper. he then turned to me and told me that max colored better than his own five year old. max's reply: 'maybe my head injury knocked some sense into me'
that kid never fails to crack us up.
i know a lot of this is a repeat of paul's post, but i really wanted to document how blessed i know we were/are. a couple of weeks after the accident i would catch myself thinking things like, 'oh it must not have been that big of a deal because...look at him! he's fine." but then i would go to a follow up and they would really stress to me how big of a deal it was and how he was extra sensitive to further injury if we didn't follow protocol. i always am one to downplay things and i felt stupid having to restrict what looked like a normal healthy boy from simple activities. but i am truly grateful that we did take the doctors seriously and we have that normal healthy boy with us everyday because of it.
we love you max!
